Warning: spoilers for King in Black: Symbiote Spider-Man #3!
Since the first Guardians of the Galaxy film in 2014, Rocket Raccoon has exploded in popularity, going from an obscure, cult hero who appeared in only 10 comics during the first thirty years of his existence, to a bona fide media sensation whose face can be found on a wide variety of merchandise, from toys to clothes. But what many may not know is that the character’s name is derived from a Beatles song, and this was a fact not lost on Spider-Man when the two first met. The Web-Slinger meets Rocket in King in Black: Symbiote Spider-Man #3, by writer Peter David, penciller Greg Land, inker Jay Leisten and colorist Frank D’Armata. The issue is in stores now.
Rocket has been a part of the Marvel Universe for 45 years, first appearing in the seventh issue of Marvel Preview way back in 1976. Created by legends Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen, the character languished in obscurity for six years before appearing in an issue of Incredible Hulk, also written by Mantlo; he would get his own mini-series a few years after that before slipping back into obscurity, trotted out every so often in random books, and usually then for comic relief. That changed in the mid-2000s, when the character joined the revamped Guardians of the Galaxy. He hasn’t looked back since, even scoring his own title in 2014. Yet very little attention is paid to where his name came from, even in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Rocket’s creators have confirmed the name was inspired by the song “Rocky Raccoon” on The Beatles' 1968 self-titled release, referred to as the White Album. It is not exactly a top-tier Beatles song, certainly not in the league of “Ticket to Ride” or “A Hard Day’s Night,” but Spider-Man still recognized the reference, and when he meets Rocket for the first time in Symbiote Spider-Man - which is set during Spidey's time wearing his original black symbiote suit - he quips “Rocket Raccoon? Like the Beatles song?” to which Rocket replies, “What’s a Beatles?”
The exchange provides a moment of levity in the otherwise dire situation Spider-Man and Rocket find themselves in, but it's also an Easter Egg pointing out the actual origin of the character’s name: something that usually gets overlooked in discussions about Rocket, likely due to the song being little-remembered by itself. Still, in a series which has often gone out of its way to signal its pop-cultural and specifically musical influences - with Star-Lord even naming the Guardians' ship after David Bowie - it's interesting that so few fans know about this direct connection, and especially that the MCU hasn't referenced it.
The Beatles’ influence can always be felt beyond the world of music and into the other arts, comic books among them; Mantlo and Giffen naming Rocket Raccoon after one of the group’s more obscure songs is a great example of how culture references and continues itself, but also a tribute to Rocket's long life in pop culture before he came to the attention of a wider fanbase. Happily, over in the ongoing Guardians of the Galaxy, Rocket recently came to terms with Earth-characters referring to him as a Raccoon, so hopefully even he's a little closer to discovering the song that gave him his name in the first place.